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Does it make sense to spend millions of dollars to restore Gulf Coast beaches?
Comment: REvenues should be spent on higher priorities of more lasting values. from Fort Walton Beach by T.
Comment: yes, it does make sense to rebuild our beaches, even as costly as it will be. besides the great barrier reef, next in line are the beaches for our safety. don't neglect them. plus the tourists that come to enjoy them. from pensacola, fl by georgia
Comment: May as well take those millions of dollars and shred them into mulch and give it to the Jay farmers. At least it would be a POSITIVE benefit to them! from Pensacola, FL by Stroade
Comment: If it's not public accessable don't use public funds. from Pensacola, Fl. by Bud
Comment: It is ridiculous to keep spending millions we don't have to try to thwart Mother Nature. Why should I, who lives inland, spend money to renourish beaches that will be restricted so I can't have access to them? Just throwing money away. from pensacola, fl by c
Comment: If the beach renovation is something that will benefit the general public, then I am totally in favor of it. If all it does is build beaches for the homeowners or hotels that should never have been allowed to build on the beach, then I say absolutely no!!! I am extremely frustrated at seeing tax dollars being used to rebuild locations for beach homeowners / business owners.
Allowing folks authority to build on the pristine beaches of Pensacola had to be because of the greed of the local commissioners and it is wrong.
from Pensacola, FL by Ray
Comment: Let the Beach do its thing. The people will still come.use that money to creat new jobs help or schools not to just get washed away again in a couple years. Spend the millons on our future OUR CHILDREN. from Pensacola/Fl by D eb
Comment: As you say it's Mother nature and builder's need to stop building on the beach. It is sickening to drive on the beach road and not see the beach due to condo's, house's, hotels. Of course to keep all of those buildings safe I guess they would need to bring in the sand, but I say the condos, hotels, beach homeowner should be the ones paying for it. Your choice to live there pay the price. from Pensacola by Jackie
Comment: The money expended has to come from some place and that is our wallets....it's time to stop the insanity ....
from Crestview,fl by Lewis
Comment: I find it ludicrous that people are talking of spending millions of dollars on rebuilding our beaches in Northwest FL and Southern AL. These people don’t want to pay taxes because their land is leased, but they don’t mind using the taxes to rebuild in areas that never should have been built on in the first place. These people are causing our insurance rates to skyrocket, because of their lack of judgment in building on a beach in a hurricane prone area. Our economy is in dire straights. We don’t need to encourage foolhardy building practices of building on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, by spending millions to dredge sand which washes away in a year or so. Dredging also ruins surf fishing. There are virtually no sand fleas now where they were there used to be unlimited numbers. This is because of the recent dredging.
FEMA needs to use its funds to help relocate people not help them to keep making the same bad decisions over and over again. Insurance companies shouldn’t have to charge people that don’t live on or near beaches more to pay for those that do.
It’s not government’s responsibility to be continually spending taxes for the same foolish mistakes that people make. Enough is enough.
from Milton/FL by Tom
Comment: absolutely not! it is a waste of money! homes built on sand should sink in sand! from p'cola fl by h
Comment: we can better use our money! from pensacola fl by brown
Comment: It's a barrier island. It is supposed to change, shift, and wash away. I RESENT my tax money, whether it is local, state, federal, or whether it came from a collard pot being used to "restore" the beach. It needs to be allowed to do what nature wants it to do.
If you build there, that's the risk you take and those who do live there should totally foot the bill for any restoration. They live there, let them pay. from Pensacola by Alan
Comment: It will enhance the cash cow for Escambia County from Pensacola, FL by Bob
Comment: I don't feel it is the Federal Governments responsiblity to restore the barrier islands with my tax money. I was told that when I wanted to renourish a section of beach on a bay at no expense to tax payers I was told by DEP that I had just simply lost that portion of beach and the land under the water now belonged to the state. The barrier islands have been moving back and forth for centuries. Just because big money built condos on the beach does not make my tax dollars resposible to rebuild the beach for them. from Pensacola,Fl by James
Comment: I live inland, but I do enjoy visiting the beach. Florida needs to put money into its beaches because of all the tourist money they bring us. from Jay by Stephanie
Comment: yes, restore the beaches, and try to find more environmentally friendly and less expensive ways to do it... however, these are the borders of this country... all of it. Same thing as repairing a sink whole in NYC... I didn't drive there. Just fix it. from pensacola, fl by denise
Comment: Barrier islands are just that. They shift and erode with the tides and storms. They were not ment to be built upon. They shift and move. The more we fill them in, the more they will wash away. from Pensacola by Bob
Comment: Barrier islands continually shift and change with every tide and storm. Not conducive to development. from Bagdad,FL by Bud
Comment: The area beaches spur nearly $3 billion in the state's tourism economy, and a significant portion of that goes to both the State and Federal tax troughs. So, taxpayers should see this as an investment in continued "payments", and not another gov't wasteful spending. from Spanish Fort/AL by Wes
Comment: It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The Good Lord is the one that gave us these majestic beaches, and it is man and his infinite misuse of the obvious who has taken away our beautiful beaches. Granted, Mother Nature (at God's discretion) has helped, but that is God's creation to ho with as He sees fit. I don't think that pouring millions of dollars to replicate what was put up by man, to be taken away by God, is going to help anyone or anything. God gave it to us, and God can take it away, if He wants. from Mary Esther, FL. by Tom
Comment: Lease holders on the beach should pay for the restoration
of the beaches. from Navarre, Fl. by C J
Comment: That's fine as long as the tax to pay for this is limited to pensacola beach and not the entire county. from pensacola florida by Give me a
Comment: We should STOP trying to undo nature. We should also stop allowing rebuilding private residences on the island after they have been destroyed by storms. from Pensacola by Bob
Comment: barrier islands should be returned to nature, with parking and beach access for public from Cantonment/FL by Ron
Comment: This is an endless process because the land that is being built on isn't permanent land, it is merely a barrier. from Cantonment, FL by Barbara
Comment: Why spend money to try to beat Mother Nature? Mother Nature always wins and so we should live with and around it and not try to change it. Barrier islands are designed to move. The beach line has ebbed and flowed for years, the mistake that has been made is to allow big development and million dollar homes on land that moves. We need to go back to what it was like 30 even 20 years ago. Again, Mother Nature will always do what it wants no matter what we do and spending that kind of money is just bad fiscal policy. from Gulf Breeze by Rachel
Comment: The beach is basically a sand bar - it moves and shifts - it's supposed to. Leave the beach alone, it did OK without our interference for years. from Pensacola by Terry
Comment: The beaches, condos & other buildings and homes destroyed on our beaches by hurricanes, keeps tourists away and we loose. Replenishing the beaches by dredging destroys the underlying eco system. It takes a long time to correct the damage. Our beaches no longer have sugar white sands. The sand is made up of a lot of road & building debris from past hurricanes now. Tourists can visit barrier islands and stay in inland hotels. There is no major need for them to stay on beaches. The beaches would be cleaner and accessible for them sooner after a major hurricane. Most people don’t want to waste tax dollars on this beach replenishing fiasco. Why is the reporting on WEAR TV3 showing more people with views supporting the beach replenishment? We are about in if not already in a depression. We are cutting all kinds of programs in the counties due to recent tax cuts. Neither the local or federal government has the money for this foolishness. WAKE UP PEOPLE! from Milton/FL by Tom
Comment: WEAR TV3 talks of Florida's Financial Woes at http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/x_stories/story19.shtml
Why should we add to them by spending millions of dollars to restore Gulf Coast beaches from Milton/FL by T
Comment: do they spend millions restoring the beach were there
are no homes. from pns,fl. by john
Comment: Should we spend millions of dollars putting sand on beaches every couple of years?
Where’s the money going to come from?
Let the folks that want to do it pay for it out of their own pockets.
The tourism season is short & shorter after hurricanes. Tourism is dropping off due to high gas prices & the shape of the financial markets. Most people can’t afford to come here & don’t want to if hurricane debris is all over the place. Want more tourists? Invest in offshore reefs that don’t get destroyed by hurricanes, but will attract divers & fisherman.
from Milton/FL by Joyce
Comment: Yes, the beaches are an economic, recreational, and environmental resource of Escambia County. The monies to restore the beaches comes principally from beach revenues to the county, state, and Federal governments.
As the county owns the beaches and 100% of the properties on Santa Rosa Island, without the beach revenues, county residents will have to pay significantly higher taxes. from Pensacola/FL by Rick
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